I plan to read Grim's review and return to this forum after watching THE PIANIST this week. For the time being, I need to say that categorical thinking is erroneous and simplistic when applied to human beings. When you assign a person a certain characteristic based on national origin you are robbing him of his humanity, his unique nature. To approach another with preconceived notions is to deny oneself the chance to really know him. To borrow from Doc, it does nothing to promote understanding.

I'd like to call attention to POLANSKI'S MACBETH, a superb, visually rich film that few have seen due to the director's legal problems when released. MACBETH is now available on DVD(widescreen, great transfer)

I think THE PIANIST cannot be nominated for the foreign language Oscar because this international production is largely in english.